The Girl from Venice
By Siobhan Daiko
Lidia De Angelis has kept a low profile since Mussolini's racial laws wrenched her from her childhood sweetheart. But when the Germans occupy Venice in 1943, she must flee the city to save her life.
Lidia joins the partisans in the Venetian mountains, where she meets David, an English soldier fighting for the same cause. As she grows closer to him, harsh Nazi reprisals and Lidia’s own ardent anti-fascist activities threaten to tear them apart.
Decades later in London, while sorting through her grandmother’s belongings after her death, Charlotte discovers a Jewish prayer book, unopened letters written in Italian, and a fading photograph of a group of young people in front of the Doge’s Palace.
Intrigued by her grandmother’s refusal to talk about her life in Italy before and during the war, Charlotte travels to Venice in search of her roots. There, she learns not only the devastating truth about her grandmother’s past, but also some surprising truths about herself.
This novel is the kind of book that you know is going to be brilliant before you’ve even read it. Maybe it was the cover, maybe it was the blurb, but something made me know that I would love this book and that ‘something’ was right.
Charlotte has a mystery to solve and that mystery is her Gran’s past. A photo of her Gran in her youth, and some unopened letters, written in Italian, send Charlotte on a trip to Italy. Charlotte hopes that she will find out the secret her Gran had kept for all these years.
Running alongside Charlotte's attempt to find out about her Gran, is the story of the woman herself. There is a reason why she would never talk about it. In this narrative, we are transported back to Italy during the Second World War. Lidia had her future all mapped out, but everything is turned on its head. Her Jewish heritage will put her in direct conflict with the "authorities". Lidia must fight not only for her life but for justice.
As I was reading this book, I could almost imagine I was Charlotte, discovering the past through Lidia’s chapters. There are some difficult scenes, nearer the end of this book, which I am not going to spoil, but I will suggest you have some tissues close to hand.
I absolutely loved reading this book! It is the kind of novel that you wish you could forget you ever read, just so you can read it all over again and experience the story anew.
The Girl from Venice is avaliable on #KindleUnlimited.
Siobhan Daiko
Siobhan Daiko is an international bestselling historical romantic fiction author. A lover of all things Italian, she lives in the Veneto region of northern Italy with her husband, a Havanese puppy and two rescue cats. After a life of romance and adventure in Hong Kong, Australia and the UK, Siobhan now spends her time, when she isn't writing, enjoying the sweet life near Venice.
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Thank you to The Coffee Pot Book Club for giving me the opportunity to read this book.
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